Design Developer, Opinion

The New York Times Opinion desk is looking for a Digital Design Developer to join our award-winning design team. In this role, you will create digital storytelling experiences for our global audience of readers with web development. As an expert front-end engineer with great visual and editorial instincts, you are equally comfortable building out storyboards as you are collaborating with designers and editors to refine ideas. You will also build tools and templates and architect complex multi-part systems and features on deadline.

Bridging creative vision and functional code, this role requires exceptional collaboration and communication. You will partner closely with technical and non-technical stakeholders, clearly articulating processes, constraints, and performance trade-offs. We’re looking for a proven track record of collaborating with art directors and designers, alongside a portfolio that demonstrates meticulous attention to visual craft.

This is an in-office position, based in New York City and includes regular attendance in the office four days each week. There may be some flexibility to work remotely per your departmental guidance.

Responsibilities:

1. Collaborate with art directors, editors, and engineers to build responsive, pixel-perfect user experiences and product features
2. Assess designs for technical feasibility, accessibility, and performance, offering constructive feedback and alternatives when needed
3. Create interactive prototypes to validate ideas and propose responsive layouts, animations, and transitions for static wireframes
4. Integrate, debug, and optimize multimedia assets (video, audio, animations) for fast load times across devices and browsers
5. Conduct thorough QA to ensure typography, spacing, colors, and micro-interactions match visual specs across screen sizes
6. Build and maintain reusable templates, tools, and documentation for recurring editorial workflows
7. Onboard and guide designers on front-end systems to streamline asset handoffs and workflow integration
8. Demonstrate support and understanding of our value of journalistic independence and a strong commitment to our mission to seek the truth and help people understand the world
9. You will report to the Deputy Editor, Design

Basic Qualifications:

1. 5+ years of creative front-end development using HTML, CSS, JavaScript, and Figma
2. Strong grasp of visual design fundamentals, including typography, layout, motion, and interaction.
3. Familiarity with Git and collaborative coding workflows and demonstrated ability to learn new technologies and front-end languages such as emerging A.I. API toolsets
4. Experience and interest in rapidly evolving digital technology, such as emerging A.I. API toolsets

Preferred Qualifications:

1. Passion for journalism and visual storytelling
2. Experience or familiarity with Svelte, WebGL, three.js, canvas, React, After Effects, Cinema4D, Blender or Maya
3. Experience with motion design, data visualization, video and audio work
4. Strong understanding of design details regarding layout hierarchy, visual consistency, motion timing, and typography
5. Comfortable in a fast-paced newsroom with flexibility for occasional breaking-news hours (nights/weekends).
6. Interest in audience analytics

This position is represented by the NewsGuild of NY.

The annual base pay range for this role is between: $113,945.85 - $136,000 USD

Additional Compensation and Benefits

For roles in the U.S., dependent on your role, you may be eligible for variable pay, such as an annual bonus and restricted stock. Benefits may include medical, dental and vision benefits, Flexible Spending Accounts (F.S.A.s), a company-matching 401(k) plan, employee stock purchase plan, paid vacation, paid sick days, paid parental leave, tuition reimbursement and professional development programs.

For roles outside of the U.S., information on benefits will be provided during the interview process.

Candidate Use of GenAI Tools:

We’re excited to learn more about you and your experience. To keep our hiring process as fair and authentic as possible, we ask that you submit your own work and not use GenAI tools to generate substantive content during the application and interview process.

If you’re an engineering candidate, we’ll let you know what specific GenAI tools you are permitted to use for your technical assessment.